Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SWAG'GER-ING, ppr.

Blustering; boasting noisily.

SWAG'GING, ppr.

Sinking or inclining.

SWAG'GY, a. [from swag.]

Sinking, hanging or leaning by its weight. – Brown.

SWAIN, n. [Sax. swein, swan, a boy, a youth, a servant, a herdsman; Sw. sven, a boy; Dan. svend; Ice. svein.]

1. A young man. – Spenser.
2. A country servant employed in husbandry. – Shak.
3. A pastoral youth. Blest swains! whose nymphs in every grace excel. – Pope. [It is used chiefly in this sense, and in poetry.]

SWAIN-ISH, a.

Rustic. – Milton.

SWAIN-MOTE, or SWEIN-MOTE, n. [or SWAN'I-MOTE. swain and mote, meeting.]

In England, a court held before the verderors of the forest as judges, by the steward of the court, thrice every year; the swains or freeholders within the forest composing the jury. Its principal jurisdiction is to inquire into the oppressions and grievances committed by the officers of the forest. It receives and tries also presentments certified from the court of attachments against offenses in vert and venison. This court is incident to a forest, as a court of piepoudre is to a fair. – Blackstone.

SWALE, n. [probably from vale.]

1. A local word in New England, signifying an interval or vale; a tract of low land.
2. In England, a shade. – Cyc.

SWALE, v.i.

To waste. [See Steal.]

SWALE, v.t.

To dress a hog for bacon, by singeing or burning off his hair. [Local.] – Cyc.

SWAL'LET, n. [See Well.]

Among the tin-miners, water breaking in upon the miners at their work. – Bailey.

SWAL'LOW, n.¹ [Sax. swalewe; D. zwaluw; G. schwalbe; Dan. svale; Sw. svala.]

A bird of the genus Hirundo, of many species, among which are the barn swallow and the martin.

SWAL'LOW, n.²

1. The gullet or esophagus; the throat.
2. Voracity. – South.
3. As much as is swallowed at once.

SWAL'LOW, v.t. [Sax. swelgan, swilgan, to swallow, to swill; D. zwelgen; Sw. svälja, to swallow; svalg, the throat; Dan. svælger. Qu. the Fr. avaler, with a prefix, and the root of fall.]

1. To take into the stomach; to receive through the gullet or esophagus into the stomach; as, to swallow food or drink. Food should be well chewed before it is swallowed.
2. To absorb; to draw and sink into an abyss or gulf; to ingulf; usually followed by up. The Malstrom off the coast of Norway, it is said, will swallow up a ship. In bogs swallow'd up and lost. – Milton. The earth opened and swallowed them up. – Numb. xvi.
3. To receive or embrace, as opinions or belief, without examination or scruple; to receive implicitly. – Locke.
4. To engross; to appropriate. Homer … has swallowed up the honor of those who succeeded him. – Pope.
5. To occupy; to employ. The necessary provision of life swallows the greatest part of their time. – Locke.
6. To seize and waste. Corruption swallow'd what the liberal hand / Of bounty scatter'd. – Thomson.
7. To engross; to engage completely. The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink; they are swallowed up or wine. – Is. xxviii.
8. To exhaust; to consume. His expenses swallow up all his income.

SWAL'LOW-ED, pp.

Taken into the stomach; absorbed received without scruple; engrossed; wasted; exhausted.

SWAL'LOW-ER, n.

One who swallows; also, a glutton. – Tatler.

SWAL'LOW-FISH, n.

A sea fish of the genus Trigla, called in Cornwall tub-fish; remarkable for the size of its gill-fins. It is called also the sapphirine gurnard. – Cyc.

SWAL'LOW-FLY, n.

The name of the Chelidonius, a fly remarkable for its swift and long flight. – Cyc.

SWAL'LOW-ING, n.

The act of taking into the stomach or of absorbing; the act of receiving implicity; the act of engrossing.

SWAL'LOW-ING, ppr.

Taking into the stomach; absorbing; ingulfing; receiving implicitly; engrossing; wasting; exhausting.

SWAL'LOW'S-TAIL, n.

In joinery and carpentry, the same as dove-tail.

SWAL'LOW-STONE, n.

Chelidonius lapis, a stone which Pliny and other authors affirm to be found in the stomachs of young swallows.

SWAL'LOW-TAIL, n.

A plant, a species of willow. – Bacon.

SWAL'LOW-WORT, n.

A plant of the genus Asclepias. It grows in the southern part of Europe, and is said to have been successfully used as a medicine, chiefly in dropsical eases. – Cyc. The African swallow-wort is of the genus Stapelia. – Lee.

SWAM, v. [pret. of Swim.]

SWAMP, n. [Sax. swam, a fungus or mushroom; Goth. swamms, a spunge, G. schwamm, D. zwam, Dan. svamp; Sw. id. a spunge, a fungus.]

Spungy land; low ground filled with water; soft wet ground. In New England, I believe this word is never applied to marsh, or the boggy land made by the overflowing of salt water, but always to low soft ground in the interior country; wet and spongy land, but not usually covered with water. This is the true meaning of the word. Swamp are often mowed. In England, the word is explained in books by boggy land, morassy or marshy ground.